The present invention relates to solar energy collectors and especially to solar heaters for following the sun and collecting and concentrating the solar energy for heating a fluid passing through the solar collector.
In the past a great variety of solar heaters has been provided for collecting solar energy for use for heating water, as well as for heating homes, generating electricity, and the like. The most common type of solar collector is the flat plate collector which can be mounted on a home or building and includes a flat container which may be painted black inside and may have a pipe passing therethrough in serpentine fashion, and a transparent covering plate so that water passing through the pipe may be heated. This type of solar heater is the most popular for heating water for a hot water tank or swimming pool inasmuch as it is inexpensive to make and mount on the roof of a building. However, it is also one of the least efficient, since during the daily rotation of the earth, the energy from the sun is received at different angles throughout the day, while the collector is mounted at a fixed angle on the roof, and in addition, the angle of the rays differs on a daily basis as the inclination of the earth tilts relative to the sun.
It has also been suggested in the past to have solar collectors which concentrate the solar rays to produce much higher heat from the sun's rays directed against water pipes and this type of heater may be a parabolic reflector or a plurality of mirrors or various types of lenses for concentrating the rays of the sun to a smaller area for increasing the amount of heat on the smaller area, such as against a water pipe. In a solar collector of this latter type, it has also been suggested to track the sun with mirrors or parabolic reflectors using photo-cells, so that the parabolic reflector always faces to the sun during daylight hours. This, however, requires photo-cells and electrical circuits, as well as a complex mechanical arrangement for moving large parabolic collectors, and becomes prohibitive in cost for everyday use.
The present invention, on the other hand, relates to a solar collector and concentrator utilizing a reflector to direct the energy at a broad focal area, which has an improved concentrating fluid handling system and provides for following the sun on a daily basis with an inexpensive, adjustable tracking system, and also provides for moving the collector on a weekly basis to compensate for different inclinations of the earth.